Clearing Brush with Livestock?

[Roscoe]

In my neighborhood is a quartersection land with a house and a barn for sale. The prize is pretty low, rentig out the house would pay the interrest pretty easy. But the land is covered with brush, at least 12′ tall. Does anyone of you have experience with pasturing livestock, mainly goats and hogs in brush? What is the stocking rate to produce some serious damage on these plants. What is left after, I would cut for firewood.
One of my customers raises black russian cross pigs, looks like the would be even more suited with their pointy head for rooting. Which goat breed is the best for this job? Boer goats make the nicest carcass, but do they good on brush?
Can hogs and goats be togheter in the same plot, or would the pigs chase the goats? Or would the (adult) hogs even guard the goats? We have here more or less the full range of predators: fox, coyote, wolf, black bear, even an odd cougar.
I dont wanna clear the whole quarter, just want piece for piece turn back in pasture.
Any thoughts?

[Tim Harrigan]

I thought about these past posts when I read your comment about converting brush to pasture/crop land.

http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?170-Grow-grass-and-graze&highlight=brontosaurus

http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?2859-Winter-2009-2010&highlight=brontosaurus

[Kenneth F]

I pasture my hogs with my goats with no problems but do not allow my goats to kid in the pasture ain’t much gonna mess with a hog once it gets 200# or so more fight per pound than anything I’ve seen LOL 4-5 together could get serious they have a pecking order but stick together I don’t know that they would protect a goat they may guard their pasture though I have 2 pyrenees and donkey in my pasture with very tough coyote pressure and no losses so far just couple chickens to the hawks but the dogs have figured that one out boers would work great pigs the Russians are good but sometimes hard to keep up tamworths are a good choice most pigs will root but some more than others the more you feed the pigs the less they’ll root I used them on my pasture cut their feed back and throw shelled corn on the ground took me a year to figure it out over stock the property for fast work but have somewhere for them to go when done(sell/freezer) or ready to buy hay and they’ll start getting out to find green stuff to eat I would recommend a donkey as guard ours eats more of a variety of weeds than ours goats but they are dairy and can be picky kiko goats would be a good choice also very hardy a cross is always less up keep for brush a kiko cross would be my choice a lot if boers can be hard to keep wormed but there are good ones as well

Kenneth

[Anonymous]

My pigs dont clear much of the woody brush but they root up the ground and break down anything dead and crumbly, makes it easier to go in and cut the brush out myself. I would like to throw some goats in the mix but the fencing is more work than cutting the brush after the pigs.

[Roscoe]

Thank you guys for the quick answer!
Are there any other (farmed) animals who eat brush and are not that hard on fences?
Do you keep hogs and goats all year round in the bush? What’s better to start, with (a) pregnant sow(s) or with weaned pigs?

[Does’ Leap]

We have cleared a good bit of land with goats and hogs. I think the key on the goat front is not so much breed as density. For example 6-10 mature goats in a 165′ net fence should decimate any brush or browse in a few days. Then you can move them. High density with short(ish) rotations will ensure that most of the brush/browse is impacted. If you put them in a huge area over an extended period they will only hit the preferred plants. Moving net fence isn’t too bad. We routinely take down and set up 6 nets/day all summer long.

Then the hogs move in after the goats – 6 or so should do the job in that same area. I have found the key with the hogs is density and frequent movement as well. Do not keep them in one area for more than a week or you may run into the compaction mentioned above. I have my goats in 42″ net fence and train the hogs to 1 strand of polywire. I do not fence them together as I like to feed grain to the hogs.

George

[Roscoe]

Hi George
What animals do you use for guarding the goats?
Donkeys are hard on brush as well, aren’t they?

[Does’ Leap]

We use have Maremma. I don’t know about donkeys.

George

[Baystatetom]

Scottish Highlander cattle do a pretty good job on brush as well. I have never owned one myself but I drive by a few places frequently where folks have pastured them in brush lots and before long they end up looking pretty well like open pasture again. The last pair of jersey steers I had seemed to eat everything in site as well. Darn things tore down all my fences chewing up the poison ivy growing on them.
~Tom

[sickle hocks]

I can vouch for the Highlands, mine are rough on bush. It’s a nuisance because I like my native woodland so there are a lot of areas I need to exclude them from…maybe a fast graze every other year or something. A plus for the highlands is they protect themselves from predators.

[mink]

my hereford beef have killed near all the brush in my overgrown pastures

[Robert MoonShadow]

Donkeys that I have aren’t really good at brush-clearing. My grade goats (various dairy breeds I’ve crossed on Boers) are rented out just for that – I get $10+/day for the herd, use 4 rolls of 42″+ electric netting and I move the herd about once a week (about 15-20 head). Great on the multifloral rose, napweed & star thistle.

[menageriehill]

I have raised nubian goats for many years. But I have lived in hot climates. The nubians are from Africa I think. I think that goats would be your best choice. they will eat everything, and ride the small trees down. I have a donkey that lives with the goats. He might keep out the small critters. They will clean it up. Be carefull to make sure that the animal that you do put in there can have large quantities of what ever his diet will be. The goats do need fresh water every day too.

[Lucinda]

Thank you for the information here 🙂 I’ve been looking at loads of different forums lately but this is the first one i’ve found link here actually answers my questions and appears to be here to actually help people 🙂

So thank you very much!

[Robert MoonShadow]

You’re welcome, Lucinda! We do try to be helpful, here. One thing about putting a donkey in with the goats – make sure they’re acclimated to each other; one of my donkey girls tolerates & protects the goats…the other will pick one up and toss it, if it irritates her or gets in the way of her & the hay feeder or whatever. Obviously, that’d harm or kill a goat – especially a baby.
I’ve got my goats on an intensely thick patch of brush right now – took me 3 hours to clear enough to put up 4 rolls of netting – and the land is only slightly rolling! After two days, I can already see the fence on the other side if I peer hard enough = that’s about 3/4 of an acre that’s showing results with 8 grown & 4 kids.
They eat. They play. They poop.
I make money.
I like being a farmer!

[Author]

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